Back in summer of 2012 I wrote a upbeat worship song called “He Lives”. I realized I didn’t have a recording of this anywhere, so I just put an acoustic version together. Hopefully one day I can get a solid full band recording of this. In the mean time, enjoy…

Since the 8th grade, the start of my summers usually involved the creation of some kind of playlist (though for me these were called “mix-tapes” for much longer than I’m willing to admit). In keeping with this tradition, and because writing about music is more fun for the moment than writing about ancient Greek and Jewish texts, I’m using this […]

Whatever sung worship is, it is not just a matter of taste. I’ve heard a lot of metaphors for what worship may be. Here are five major paradigms: 1. Family dinner. Why do we do things a certain way? Because always have and always will. Traditions remind us that we’re not alone, but part of great family spanning […]

I’ve been thinking a lot about forgiveness these days. I wish I can say it began a few weeks ago when I saw this beautiful gesture of forgiveness displayed by the House of Peace Mosque in Connecticut, which was reminiscent of this inscrutable forgiveness extended to Dylann Roof by Emanuel Church in South Carolina. No, [...]

Kanye West’s 7th album, The Life of Pablo (TLOP) was released a few weeks ago. On this album, Kanye gives his listeners a window into his life and thoughts. Furthermore, I believe this album gives us a picture of a particular type of Christianity that characterizes our american society. The Atlantic’s review of the album […]

Here at The Two Cities, a couple bloggers have engaged their past selves in various regards, whether it be their former eschatology or their 15-year old self. When I was 17, I started to write a few chord progressions and corresponding melodies that eventually, after a 3-year process of revision and re-revision, became a song I finally […]

Over the past few months Twenty One Pilots (TØP) has slowly but surely become one my all-time favorite bands. I have been listening to all three of their albums, Blurryface, Vessel, and Twenty One Pilots (self-titled) pretty much nonstop. Car Radio The first song I heard by TØP was ‘Car Radio’. The song is unique to their […]

Thanks to Logan’s post a few weeks ago, I have been introduced to an absolutely fabulous worship band called Kings Kaleidoscope (hereafter KK). If you’ve never heard of them, go buy their album, Becoming Who We Are, right now. I did the very same thing after reading Logan’s review and I am so glad that […]

In the past few years, the Seattle-based, 10-piece band Kings Kaleidoscope (hereafter “KK”), has grown both in skill and popularity. In October of last year, they released their first full-length studio album, Becoming Who We Are, chock full of original songs and a few inventive covers. The album peaked at #9 on the Billboard chart “US Christian […]

Sufjan Stevens’ new album, Carrie & Lowell, has been out for over a month now, but I’ve only had the chance to listen to it for the past week. I had pre-ordered it a while back and mistakenly assumed that it would automatically download to my account and so I spent a few weeks wondering when […]